A hijacked car carrying 60kg of explosives was driven to the Victoria shopping centre in central Belfast. The bomb partially exploded at 11:15pm on Sunday Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

The chief constable of Northern Ireland has warned about a surge in republican dissident terror attacks in the runup to Christmas.

Matt Baggott issued his warning after a bomb partially exploded close to Belfast's main police station on Sunday night.

The explosion came just days after the new IRA tried to force a bus driver to take a bomb into Derry's main police base.

The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said: "There has been a surge recently in dissident republican activity. We have seen letter bombs, under-car booby traps, blast bombs, hijackings.

"These groupings are trying to bring themselves to notice again. They seem to be in some form of bizarre competition to make sure that they have a profile."

But Baggott ruled out a "ring of steel" being erected in Belfast or any other major towns, which during the Troubles involved numerous armed checkpoints with military support at key arterial routes in the buildup to Christmas.

Instead there would be extra police patrols deployed to counter the present threat from the new IRA and other republican organisations opposed to peace and power sharing, he said.

On Sunday night a hijacked Renault Leguna car was driven from the republican Ardoyne district to the Victoria shopping centre in central Belfast. The bomb inside, packed with 60kg of explosives, partially detonated around 11.15pm. The security alert forced residents out of their flats nearby and caused widespread traffic disruption.

As in the Derry attack, republican dissidents forced a civilian to drive the bomb into the city centre and, according to the PSNI assistant chief constable Drew Harris, the driver was lucky to be alive after the ordeal.

"This was a terrifying experience for that poor driver because as he was going along obviously the device is situated right behind him and he is driving along with a live device which if it had detonated, even partially, would have caused him severe injury and even death," said Harris.

He added that police viewed the attack as an effort by dissident republicans to disrupt life in Belfast in the runup to Christmas.

"It is many years since we have had such a direct attack in the city centre of such scale, we are asking people to be vigilant. People will see an increased police presence in the city centre," said Harris.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, said: "This was a reckless and callous attack on the people of Belfast which could have put many lives at risk.

"Families have been forced out of their homes and commuters delayed in their journey to work by this attempt to attack ordinary people going about their daily business."

The Stormont justice minister, David Ford, said: "The people responsible for this attack have nothing to offer and it is time they realised that Northern Ireland has moved on from the dark days of our past."

Anne Connolly, chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said: "The use of the 'proxy bomb' tactic in recent days is concerning and further evidences the complete lack of care these people have for those who might get caught up in an attack."